Magician Ben Hart, ventriloquist Nina Conti, acrobatic spectacular Cirque Berserk and hit West End improv musical Showstopper will all be part of its line-up in August. Rising comedy stars Angela Barnes, Tom Lucy, Jake Lambert and Josh Jones are among the acts already selling tickets for their shows. Previous Pleasance hits The Importance of Being...Earnest? and NewsRevue will be returning as part of the Pleasance line-up, which will see shows staged at its famous courtyard venue, as well as the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. A spokeswoman for the Pleasance said: “The 2022 programme will continue Pleasance’s great work with exciting newcomers, game-changing international artists, theatre award-winners, Pleasance stalwarts who delight audiences year on year and those boldly entering the performance landscape. “With more shows to be announced over the coming months, there will be comedy, theatre, circus, magic, dance, kids’ shows and much more, alongside support for some of the most innovative newcomers through artist development strand Pleasance Futures. The Pleasance should certainly be the pick of your Fringe this August.” Meanwhile the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society has announced it will be launching its own online box office next month after opening up registration for shows planned for August. Details of hundreds of productions are expected to be available to view on the Fringe website and buy tickets for from Thursday, March 3. Further launches for ticket sales are planned on April 7, May 5 and June 9. This year will see the staging of the first-scale Fringe since the summer of 2019 due to the impact of the Covid pandemic. Shows were only able to be staged online in 2020, while efforts to revive the Fringe last year were hampered by the late lifting of physical distancing restrictions, which was not approved by the Scottish Government until August. The Fringe Society has also plans to publish a printed programme for the first time since 2019 in early July. An official announcement from the Fringe Society said: “Batches of shows will be revealed each month in the run up to the festival, giving prospective audience members a chance to browse the programme in bite-sized chunks, plan their visit in advance and spread the cost of ticket-buying.”
